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Analysis risk and commercial risk: the first treatment of usury in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences

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  • Pierre Januard

Abstract

Whereas literature on Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of usury has tended to focus on the Summa Theologiae, this paper highlights the contribution of his early work the Commentary on the Sentences. In this work, Aquinas distances himself from the Roman law mutuum and the assumption of a borrower’s state of necessity, and he introduces preliminary monetary elements. He thereby paves the way for a future understanding of surplus in intertemporal exchange. The monetary loan is presented as a commercial exchange involving not only commercial risk but also the risk of analytical errors in understanding the nature of the operation.

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  • Pierre Januard, 2021. "Analysis risk and commercial risk: the first treatment of usury in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 599-634, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:28:y:2021:i:4:p:599-634
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2020.1861046
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    1. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risky exchanges: price and justice in Thomas Aquinas’s De emptione et venditione ad tempus," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 729-769, July.
    2. André Lapidus & Pierre Januard, 2024. "Usury and simony Trading for no price: Thomas Aquinas on money loans, sacraments and exchange - Chapter 7," Post-Print hal-04396111, HAL.
    3. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risks on Trade: The Activity of the Merchant in Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences," Working Papers halshs-03313255, HAL.
    4. André Lapidus, 2023. "Hugo Grotius on Usury," Post-Print hal-03989450, HAL.

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    JEL classification:

    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)

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